The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-25
JULY DAYS.
Woman Whose Courage Amounts
to Genius.

has grown gray since the troubles of the Ma
tional Onera began. If ever woman had
courage that amounted to positive genius in
fhe face of obstacles, that woman is she.
From the financial point OF view no one in
America has aqEaled her in zeal for musical
e1ucation Before tho scheme for an Ameri-
can opera company was projected, she had
expeuded 500 900, | suppose, in behalf of
,rrilnr lsrls, who had, she believed, careers
Gorc them. At ono time she had fourteen
nlng American women in Paris receiving
nusical education for whose tuition, board,
, 1thing, and every expense she held her
.,if responsible. AS the present time, there
ne. 81, have been told, three women in
New Yorl. whom She is helping in the Same
way with tho promise of some years abroad
VIXEN tho advantages offered this side of tue
Atlantic have been exhausted. Music Is
with her g passion, and she believes, as a
devotce clil,ys to his croeti, that il it could
h. taught to every Iuan, woman and child
th, natiGu over the millennium would forth
FIRST and last she has put into the opera
company all the money Of her own that she
conld spare Her husband has contributed
$4,000 beside. Every dollar of the expense
OF the School of Opera, concerning whose
lack of prominence SO much complaint has
been made has been met by her and the
illtuO iDT IL during each week Oh us session
has mounted up to $1,000. Frusch- Madi,
whom she put in charge of it, was brought
10 this country by her, was her
especial protege and entertained in her own
house.
Three months or so ago the National
Opera Company was almost definitely
given up. No money to pay its accrued
bills and no pledges for next season were
forthcoming. Men whose hands go into
their pockets readily enough for almost
every worthy scheme proposed to them
were appealed to, but not cenbwas forth
coming Mrs. Frank Leslie was interested,
and tried to interest the woman who set her
ON her feet when the publishing firm was
involved after her husbands death. 1t was
of no use, Charles A. Dana wrote a letter
refusing money or any help from the Sun
Mrs Laura Holloway eXerted herself among
wealthy Brooklynites to no purpose. Pedes-
trian Weston wore out pair of boots pac-
ing I'D and down Wall street and received
in contributions Just 80.
Friends told Mrs Thurber that so long as
Manager Locke was i'll charge nobody would
trust more valuables to a sinking ship. She
replied that the contract with him was not
up IL the close of the opera season, and
that she was utterly powerless to move
against him if she wished She felt inclined
to give up a hopeless task and goto France to
live down her disappointment.
At an OppOrUune moment Washington
Conner signed his check for $4,000 as the
nucleus for a guarantee fund for next season.
For brief period things looked brighter
The Huntingtons and others who with her
We're jointly responsible for expenses as
stockholders of the company left town, be-
lieving that the performances were on a
paving basis at last and that the opera
would return to New York in good shape.
Many of them went abroad. Mrs. Thurber
was left to bear the brunt of the deficit and
has seen within a fortnight impatient I'M
paid employees invade her parlors and scrut-
inize her bric-a-brac, intimating, in no gem
tie tones that objects of virtu had better go
and their bills be settled. STILL she says she
will go on next season. If she does she has
learned some valuable business lessons in the
bitter school of experience, and will succeed
beyond a doubt in the end She is one of
the women born to succeed, whose faith in
the cause they advocate carries them safely
over every obstacle, who do not, because
they cannot, given life and strength,
fail.
EXPENSIVE MANTELS
Happening into an aesthetic CRATE and
mantsl store near Fifth avenue the other
day CHANGED upon man from New Jersey
making purchase. With the assistance of
the affahle clerk he selected a fine mantel
for the parlor, with beveled French glass
mirror IL the over-mantel, with tile edges
and hearth, and with andirons, fender and
fire basket of polished brass. 1t cost about
S225. Another about equally expensive was
chosen for the dining room and the ''alcove
room" was fitted for a sweet thing in stained
cherry at a slightly lower figure. my
daughters roomn-the daughter was there,
slight, faded blonde with a rather pretty
face-must rest content with a compare
lively modest work of the cabinet makers
IL, l.
parting Instructions about the brass tOngS,
the father flourished carpenters folding
measure at the mantels for a minute and
the affable clerk bowed them to the door,
having accomplished 500 sale in half an
hour. Not that such a thing is at all I'M
usual. 1t was on the contrary, quite amOd-
est outlay. But when, about a quarter of an
hour later, passed along Crosby street, be-
tween BrOome and Grand streets, / saw q
sight which caused me to think how infinite
ly different the lot of even moderately
wealthy people from Jersey is from that of
the wretchedly poor of the tenement dis
trcS. 1T was only a block from Broadway S
big stores and its hum of constant traffic,
huJ 1t seemed to be sort of Italia minora.
The whole block of stuffy tenements had APP
Rrently dlsgorged its swarm of Italian
tnantS upon the street. Within a space OF
hundred feet along the east sidewalk were
rs many as forty children under fifteen
months or year and half old-babies-
ana perhaps half or a third as many grown
women IN their charge. The day was in
tclsely hot, not a breath of air stirred in the
street, and the whole group was as listless
ana inert as if the heat had sapped away
an their energy. Not one of the whole num-
per was clean some were indescribably
dlrty There was no childish play, no
maternal caress. But on the other hand,
tlere was no complaint, nothing but stole
endurance. One mother, who looked old
enough to be great grandmother at least,
clutched baby to her shrivelled breast. All
wore that look which tells of sleeplesS
nlgntS and some were doing fitfully upon
tle not stones of the sidewalk or upon the
steps OF the tenements, their heads lolling
On one side. Flies fairly swarmed in the
helghborhood. That night they climbed
BACK INTO their sitting kennels, where they
must have gnsped for breath. The next day
VINO knowsf-one or two or three, killed
py heat, bad food and lack of sleep, may
nave been lying silent in death. Somehow
that modest purchase of mantels which |
had witnessed, or any purchase at all of non
ESSENTIALS, seemed to me frghtfully wicked
az Gie lace OF such squalor, misery and SUI
THE MULTIPLYING PHOTOGRAPHER.
The amateur photographer of the gGltler
seI-and her number is multplylng-has
ssaheh to the study of flowers this season.
Inc herbarium, that long time recourse of